🎙️ Steve Shelley – Building a $1B Tech Unicorn
Steve Shelley shares lessons from building Deputy into a $1B unicorn and launching 1Racer with Devika. Insights on scaling & capital.
Building a $1B Tech Unicorn
Steve Shelley started his career cleaning planes and went on to build one of Australia’s largest aviation ground handling businesses, AeroCare, before co-founding Deputy, a workforce management platform, valued at over $1 Billion Dollars, used by businesses all around the world.
Now, he’s applying that same playbook to his passion for motorsport with 1Racer – a new platform designed to streamline race-day admin and revolutionise how events are run across Australia and beyond, in collaboration with Devika.
In this episode, Steve unpacks the parallels between building traditional businesses and scaling software, what he learned from bootstrapping Deputy before raising over AUD$100 million in 2018 (the largest in history at the time), and why partnering with Devika was the right move to bring 1Racer to life.
You’ll learn:
- How 1Racer launched from a pain point Steve experienced firsthand
- The mindset shifts required to scale tech as a non-technical founder
- Lessons from building Deputy – product, capital, and leadership insights
- How Steve kept his team focused through rapid growth and copycat competitors
- What founders should do before building, scaling, or seeking investment
🎧 Like what you hear? Follow the show and visit devika.com to learn how we help founders go from idea to impact.
Embedded: https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZWgpBzDiBWU?feature=oembed